Published: August 19, 2010

NEW ORLEANS -- An approaching storm had silenced relief-well drills and grounded wildlife rescue boats. But inside a small storefront office along a busy street here, the nongovernmental engine of response to the Gulf of Mexico gusher was gunning ahead despite the rain.

At the headquarters of the nonprofit Louisiana Bucket Brigade, an environmental group that has embarked on an ambitious oil-leak mapping project and conducted hundreds of post-spill health surveys, member action associate Shannon Dosemagen was helping a colleague enter results into an online database during last week's washout day on the coast.

The 86-day release of more than 200 million gallons of crude into the Gulf has "largely been seen as an environmental disaster," Dosemagen said. "But the things we're tracking are the health impacts, cultural losses, economic impacts."

That tracking work can be slow-going, as the group's volunteers station themselves in convenience stores, marinas, and bars where residents of the state's rural southern bayous congregate. The group's two-page survey, which focuses on unusual symptoms experienced following oil or dispersant exposure and attempts to control for over-the-counter medication use, has produced anecdotal reports of health problems that respondents did not initially realize.

But though the surveys may not yield a scientific conclusion about the oil leak's long-term fallout, local nonprofits such as the brigade -- one of several groups around the country that teach communities how to test for air toxics using little more than a bucket and a hand-held vacuum -- are poised to become key players as the federal government begins to track the health consequences faced by Gulf residents recruited into BP PLC's sprawling cleanup operation.

The National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) this week outlined plans to begin a prospective study of the mental and physical health of about 50,000 workers who helped battle the spill. Funded with an initial $10 million from the National Institutes of Health, the federal effort represents a potentially landmark addition to the meager research into the health effects of past oil spills, and NIEHS epidemiologist Dale Sandler said Tuesday that her team would "love to be able to take advantage of" any existing data collected by local nonprofits.

"Before we do anything, we need to really engage the local community," said Sandler, a principal investigator on and concept designer of the Gulf health study. "We need leaders to serve as gatekeepers, to enroll in our study and facilitate enrollment [of at-risk populations]."

The work done by Dosemagen and her colleagues, who have spent more than 1,800 hours conducting health surveys and building an online "crisis map" of citizen-reported oil impacts, suggests the brigade is well-positioned to be among the groups helping NIEHS build trust in Gulf's most insular communities.

Given the rising local skepticism about the federal government's seafood and air-quality testing, on top of the animus stoked by an Obama administration report that said nearly three-quarters of the leaked oil has already dissolved, "we need an alternative voice," Dosemagen said. "We have proof that there's still oil in our water."

The brigade's oil impact map was developed alongside Tulane University's Payson Center for International Development and Disaster Resilience Leadership Academy, two partners that may seem an unusual fit for a local environmental group that has spent the past decade pushing for more pollution controls and testing in areas near refineries and chemical plants.

Yet the map's Ushahidi crowd-sourcing software, first created for post-election monitoring in Kenya, can be a helpful tool in responding to an environmental incident such as an oil spill, explained Payson Senior Program Manager Adam Papendieck.

The map "completes an information feedback loop" that can supplement gaps in the government's communications with those on the ground, Papendieck said. "People are participating and contributing to systems they feel like they benefit from."

A recent visit to the map revealed verified sightings of new oil along the Louisiana coast this week as well as an unverified claim that chemical dispersant use is continuing along the Florida Panhandle. Asked for comment on that charge, a spokesman at the Unified Command in Mobile, Ala., reiterated previous statements that dispersant spraying stopped in mid-July.